Intervention -
Tuesday, 07/23/2013

Despite recent events in Detroit, I believe the famously coined term "green shoots" is an apt descriptor for the municipal bond market at this present time. Having been scorched by the wildfire correction that engulfed the fixed-income markets since the end of April, as evidenced by the sharp rise in interest rates (represented in the graph below), there now seems to be indication of a broadening of support for munis from the retail/registered investment advisor community. I have seen inquiries coming from dealers looking for bonds across the spectrum — indeed a welcome sight. The question remains: When does this become an embedded strategy that brings assets back to mutual funds and ETFs?

Detroit City Blues -
Monday, 07/22/2013

Van Eck Global, as the sponsor of Market Vectors municipal bond exchange-traded funds (ETFs), naturally has serious concerns following the filing of the petition by the City of Detroit seeking protection under Chapter 9 of the bankruptcy code. What implications do I think are to be drawn?

Plain Talk, Part 1 -
Thursday, 07/18/2013

Let’s face it: There are some truisms in life that we seem to intuitively know and believe, but will not give credence to until after the fact. One such concept is things are never as good as they seem, nor as bad.

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